


The Kumiho

by ladyhoneydarlinglove



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Korean Myth and Folklore - Freeform, Storywatch, zine contribution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 19:51:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16729665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyhoneydarlinglove/pseuds/ladyhoneydarlinglove
Summary: Beware the kumiho, terror of the valley, devourer of humans.{My contribution to theStorywatch Zine! A take on the kumiho (nine-tailed fox) of Korean folklore.}





	The Kumiho

Once, there lived a fox. Like all foxes she was quick and cunning, and like all foxes she loved to chase her prey. She loved to chase rabbits most of all, and often made a game of it, to see how many she could catch at a time. She started with one, then two, then three, and so on and so forth until she could catch as many as one hundred rabbits in one day. “What good fun we are having!” she would exclaim as she would hunt them down, one by one. “Is this not a wonderful little game we play?”

Then she would devour them, quick as you please, and all the rabbits came to know her as the terror of the valley.

Many ages passed, and because the fox was so swift and clever she grew to be one thousand years old. All the energy of her many lifetimes filled her spirit, and she became a kumiho. “How wonderful!” the kumiho thought to herself. “Now I shall be able to walk among the humans!”

The kumiho took the form of a young woman, with soft brown hair and soft dark eyes, her only flaw being the small pink marks on her cheeks where her whiskers ought to have been. They gave her an unusual look, but humans are often very silly and do not pay much attention to such things when they can look upon a pretty face. So she walked among them, unseen.

Soon the kumiho grew hungry, and though she returned to her fox form and ate, she found that rabbits now did little to satisfy the deep hunger in her belly. “How strange,” thought the kumiho. “Rabbits have always been good to eat before. I wonder what has changed.”

She returned to her human form and walked through the crowds in the village marketplace, and as she watched them go about their daily lives, she grew even more hungry. “They do look very tasty,” the kumiho said to herself. “I shall see if I can lure just one away.”

So the kumiho batted her pretty eyes and played with her pretty hair and laughed the laugh of a sweet young woman, and soon she had a man fall in love with her. She lured him out to the woods and there she revealed her true form, a beastly fox with nine tails. The man tried to flee, but the kumiho pounced, sinking her sharps fangs into his neck until it snapped, and then she feasted on his liver and his heart. “How delicious!” the kumiho said, licking her chops. “I shall see if I can make a game of this too, just as I did with my old rabbit friends!”

The kumiho returned to the village, luring away first one human, then two, then three, until she had eaten the hearts and livers of all those the village had to offer except the very young and the very old, who did not seem tasty anyway. “What good fun! I could not imagine a better game to play,” the kumiho laughed, returning to her fox form and making her way to the next hunting ground.

And so the kumiho went from village to village, luring humans from their happy homes and devouring their hearts and livers. Soon the people came to know the kumiho as the terror of the valley, just as the rabbits had. They tried to warn each other, but the kumiho was quick and crafty and could walk among them without being seen, except for the pink marks on her cheeks. As more and more people fell to her hungry jaws, the fear and outrage among them grew, but they did not know how to fight such a crafty demon as the kumiho.

Now as it happened the valley was surrounded by mountains, and at the base of one of these mountains there lived a monk, who sat in meditation for so many years he now had nine eyes to help him see and know all things. So the villages sent their best and bravest to find him, and beg for his aid. “Please, please, you must help us!” they cried. “We have lost so many to the dreaded kumiho already, and if she is not stopped soon, there will be none of us left!”

The monk could not turn away such a desperate plea. “Fear not,” he told the anxious villagers. “I will help you defeat this kumiho.”

So the monk left his spot at the base of the mountain and traveled down into the valley below, where he spoke with the birds in the air and the fish in the rivers and all the animals in between until he came to the place where the kumiho used to hunt her rabbits. They told the monk of her life as a fox, and the games she liked to play with them, and the monk knew then the kumiho would not be able to resist a challenge.

“Spread word amongst yourselves,” the monk told the villagers. “Say where you found me at the base of the mountain, and that I am very strong and no kumiho could ever hope to catch me. She will hear the rumor, and when she comes for me, I will take care of her.”

The villagers did exactly as the monk said, and soon the kumiho began to hear whispers of a powerful monk with nine eyes who saw all, knew all, and could not be tricked by such silly things as demons. The kumiho, quick and clever but also very vain, heard these things and could not help herself. “I am sure I am stronger than some silly old monk,” she thought as she made her way to the base of the mountain. “I shall trick him the same way I tricked the others, and then I shall make a feast of his heart and liver.”

But though the kumiho put on a clever disguise, with her prettiest dark eyes and her softest brown hair, she could not hide the pink marks on her cheeks, and she could not fool the monk with nine eyes. “I have been waiting for you,  _ kumiho _ ,” he declared when she approached. “I have promised the villagers I will rid them of your evil presence, and so I shall.”

The monk rose to face her, so the kumiho turned into the beastly nine-tailed fox and lunged. But the monk was as quick as he was wise, and he had prepared himself for a fight. He spoke a prayer and hurled discord at the demon, who could not dodge. It latched onto the wickedness in her soul and sunk in deep, and the kumiho fell. “What have you done to me!” she cried.

“My nine eyes have helped me see the discord you cause the villagers, and now I have sewn that discord into you,” replied the monk. “Now you must learn repentance and free the discord from your soul, or you will die. I wish you luck.”

The kumiho lay helpless as the monk bowed to her and left. She stayed there for a very long time, until summer faded into autumn, and then to winter, and the cold snow covered her body as the kumiho wept and wept. “What an awful thing I have done!” the kumiho realized as time passed. “I never meant to cause so much suffering. I wanted only to play my games and have some fun.”

Eventually winter gave way to spring, and then again to summer, and finally the kumiho was able to pick herself up and make her way feebly back to the valley. Discord followed her, and she collapsed again on the banks of the river, weak from hunger. “What shall I do?” the kumiho cried, weeping. “The monk said I must learn repentance, but I don’t know where to begin.”

She stayed by the river for some time, until one day, a group of rabbits from the valley found her. “What has happened to you, kumiho?” they asked.

“I have had discord sewn into my soul, and if I do not learn repentance, I will die,” the kumiho replied sadly.

Rabbits, who are much kinder and gentler creatures than foxes or humans, spoke amongst themselves and took pity on the demon. “Come with us, kumiho,” they urged. “Since you left there have been many more fearsome creatures in the valley, and we cannot defend ourselves. Help us, and perhaps you will be free of discord.”

The kumiho wept tears of gratitude, and though she was still weak, followed her old prey back to their home in the valley. There they gave her plants and vegetables to eat, and though they were not very tasty, they filled the hunger in her belly well enough. “Thank you, thank you, my friends. I shall make a new game, of protecting you,” she declared to the rabbits, and the rabbits, wary but hopeful, cheered.

And so the kumiho began her new game. First, she protected the rabbits from one hunter, then two, then three, and so on and so forth. Every day and every night the kumiho wandered the valley, determined to keep it safe for her new friends. She fought off lynx, wolves, bears, leopards, and even tigers, until there was not a single animal who could lay paws on the rabbits in the valley for fear of the kumiho. With every fight the kumiho grew stronger and happier, and soon she had forgotten all about discord.

One morning, the kumiho woke up to the frantic chatter of her friends. “Kumiho, kumiho! Look, look what has become of you!” they cried. Curious, the kumiho ran to the river to gaze upon her reflection, and found a human face staring back at her.

“Why look at me!” the kumiho exclaimed, staring down at her new face. “I have turned into a human! How did this happen?”

“You must have freed yourself from discord,” the rabbits said. “And now that you have no evil in your soul, you can no longer be a kumiho.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” Her friends gathered around her as the kumiho wept tears of joy, for she had never been so happy in her life as she was now, free from discord and surrounded by creatures who cared for her.

“What will you call yourself?” the rabbits asked.

The kumiho thought. “I shall call myself Hana,” she decided. “And do not fret, little friends. I will not leave you to fend for yourselves now that I am human. In fact, I shall fight for you every day and every night.”

And so the kumiho became known as Hana, Protector of the Valley, and to this day she has stayed there with her friends, fighting to keep her home safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard on this zine, I loved writing this piece and I'm so glad I can finally share!


End file.
